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Northfield Boys Win County Over Wabash

It was Northfield and Wabash in the championship game of the county tourney. Wabash wanted to play up tempo, going deep in to their bench as they had the night before vs Southwood and Northfield wanted to slow it down and play ball control. Both teams tried to force their will and in the end the Northfield ball control and scoring balance, plus their dominance on the boards prevailed. Northfield defeated Wabash 60-37 to capture the county title.

With the game tied at 2 Northfield would build the lead to 8-2 with buckets from Ryan Givens, Dustin Echard and free throws from Chad Glasscock. Matt Henderson and Shea Beauchamp would hit for Wabash to make it 8-6. Northfield would then go on a 9-0 run to end the quarter, leading 17-6. Echard, Justin Parker and Joe Frieden scored during the run.

The game would become very physical in the second quarter with the two teams playing very even. Wabash would out score Northfield by 2 points in the quarter 14-12. Bodies were flying all over the court as it seemed the officials had a no blood no foul mind set. With things getting out of hand a technical foul was called on the Wabash bench for an unknown reason with 47.4 seconds remaining. Northfield missed both free throws. With the score 29-16 Alex Hentgen hit two quick buckets for Wabash, one at the buzzer to make it 29-20 at the half.

The game slowed down in the third quarter with the two teams playing to an 8-8 tie. Glasscock and Hentgen would trade buckets and then Travis Shears hit for Wabash to cut the lead to 31-24. Givens hit and Echard had two free throws to build the lead back to 35-24. Zack Hipskind and Givens traded buckets before Hentgen again hit at the buzzer to make it 37-28 going to the final quarter.

With the lead at nine Wabash was going to force Northfield to hit free throws in the fourth quarter to win the game. That’s exactly what the Norse did, converting 17 free throws in the quarter. It didn’t matter who the Apaches fouled the Norse made the shots. Parker hit 4, Frieden 3, Glasscock 4 and Echard 6. Wabash, forcing shots trying to play catchup just couldn’t find the bottom of the bucket enough.